Live Long And Prosper
by CanzetYote
Summary: Oneshot. Dallas is depressed over the death of Leonard Nimoy. With some help from Rex, Joey makes some cookies for him to cheer him up.


The date was February 28th, 2015. Joey and Lester had arrived at their D&D club in Joey's doghouse and began setting up the games. As Joey was looking through his player's guide books, he turned to face the dachshund, "Say Lester, have you seen Dallas today?"

"No." Lester folded his arms with a scowl on his face, "It's not my fault if he's gonna flake out on us."

"But Dallas is never late for our D&D meetings." Joey replied, a look of concern of his face, "Something strange is going on."

As if on cue, Dallas slowly shuffled into the doghouse but there was something very, very different about him. The dalmatian didn't seem like his usual cheerful and perky self. In fact, Joey and Lester could tell by the redness of his bright blue eyes that he had been crying quite a bit, "H...hey, guys. Sorry I'm so late."

Joey raised an eyebrow at the sight of his tearful friend, "You okay, Dallas? Did you just finish watching Grave Of The Fireflies?"

"Y...yeah." Dallas sniffed, "S...something like that. Let's just get on with business as usual, okay?"

"All right." Joey replied, feeling a bit uneasy by Dallas' tearful emotional state.

The three dogs sat down at their D&D table and began setting up. It was only ten minutes in to their session of play and Dallas had barely spoken a single word, all he did was rest his head on the table with a look of sadness and hurt in his eyes. About ten minutes into the game, Dallas rolled his dice and ended up in an encounter with a kobold which proceeded to annihilate his low-on-health medic with its razor sharp claws.

Lester burst out laughing, "Finally, you lose a character for once, Dallas!"

Abruptly, a choked sob broke the silence and Joey and Lester just stared at the dalmatian. They then noticed that Dallas had a warm, salty tear rolling down his snout and they watched as it dripped off his chocolate brown nose and landed on the wooden table. Lester scoffed at the dalmatian's tears, "Crying because you lost your healer? I thought you were more mature than that, Dallas."

Joey folded his arms and glared at Lester, "I'm pretty sure something else is bothering him, Lester. He never cries when he loses." With a sigh, Joey got up to his seat and walked over to Dallas, placing a paw on his shoulder, "Are you feeling okay, Dallas? You really don't seem like yourself."

"I think I'd like to talk with you in private, Joey..." Dallas sighed, shaking his head, "It's kind of embarassing."

"All right." Joey replied, "Why don't you want Lester to hear?"

"He'll just make fun of me over it." Dallas said, his ears drooping and a blush spreading across his face.

"All right, then." Joey nodded, following the dalmatian out of his doghouse and into the yard. As soon as they got into the yard, Dallas buried his face in his paws and let out a sniffle, his blue eyes slowly misting up with tears. Joey blinked in shock and confusion. It was so weird to see his normally happy dalmatian friend in such a depressed state. Swallowing a lump in his throat, Joey placed a paw on Dallas' shoulder, "Is...is someone abusing you at home? Because my big brother is a police officer. Maybe he could help."

Dallas rapidly shook his head, "No no no no no, it's nothing like that. My family loves me very much. It's just that..." Dallas began fiddling with the silver insignia on his collar before rubbing his arm slowly, "I've been crying this whole morning cause Leonard Nimoy...um...he passed away yesterday...so I'm just not really feeling like myself."

Dallas quickly averted eye contact, a few tears streaming down his muzzle as he stared at the ground, "It...it hit me p-pretty hard...e-even if he is just a TV actor...promise you won't laugh. I know it sounds really pathetic...but it almost felt like losing a family member. I'm pretty sure that the entire Star Trek fandom is shaken up over this turn of events."

Frowning, Joey pulled Dallas into a warm hug, "Yeah...I know that feeling. I cried when Tomoko Kawakami died so don't be too embarrassed."

Wiping his tears from his muzzle, Dallas sighed and let go of the hug, "Sorry about backing down from the D&D game, I guess I just need a bit more time to mourn. If you need someone to fill in for me, you can always ask Peanut. I'm sure he'll be happy to play with you."

"Are you sure you'll be all right, Dallas?" Joey asked, "I can help walk you home if you want."

"I think so." Dallas nodded slowly, "I'll be fine so you don't have to walk me home. Don't worry about me. Go and have your fun with Lester, I wouldn't want to bog down everyone else's good time. See ya, Joey."

Frowning, Joey watched sadly as his dalmatian friend somberly walked away and headed in the direction of his house. It was then that Lester had emerged from Joey's doghouse with a smirk on his face, "I overheard the whole thing. Wow, what a little crypuppy, shedding tears over a celebrity's death like that."

Joey glared at Lester, "Just for that, our little D&D session is cancelled. The two of us will be going over the Rex's house and baking cookies to cheer up Dallas."

"Aw, what?" Lester spat, "Bake cookies? But I don't know the first thing about baking! Besides, I could be doing better things with my time like managing my anime blog. You can wear a frilly pink apron if you like, Joey but I'm outta here. See ya later."

The dachshund left and Joey grumbled to himself in annoyance. Marching to his doghouse, Joey entered the front door to see Squeak fiddling around with some D&D dice, "So, we're baking cookies to cheer up Dallas?"

"As long as Rex is okay with it." Joey replied, "By the way Squeak, have you seen my collection of Star Trek cookie cutters?"

"You collect Star Trek cookie cutters?" Squeak blinked in confusion.

"Dallas had a bunch of extras and gave me some when he first moved in to the neighborhood." Joey explained, "I never really used them but I kept them as a gift from him." The nerdy young dog began rummaging through boxes of things in search of the cookie cutters when Squeak noticed one that was shaped like a hand doing a vulcan salute in a box. The little mouse tapped the dog on his shoulder and pointed in the direction of the box.

"Bingo!" Joey snapped his fingers, approaching the box, "That's just what I was looking for!" He peered into the box and saw a bunch of Star Trek themed cookie cutters, "This should really brighten up Dallas' day."

"You go do that, I'll go talk to Lester." Squeak replied, "He needs to go apologize to Dallas for being such a jerk to him."

Joey picked up the small box and carried it out of his doghouse. He then walked out of his yard and down the street, passing by the houses on his way to the Holloway residence. He was grateful that Bino was out doing the initiation thing with the wolves and couldn't do his meetings for the Good Ol Dogs' club so Rex was certainly going to be home. The nerdy pooch finally got to the bulldog's house and knocked on the door. Rex opened the door and looked down at Joey who had the box in his hands, "Can I help you, Joey?"

"Dallas is feeling pretty sad so I was wondering if you'd like to help bake cookies for him." Joey asked the bulldog, "He's been pretty upset that Leonard Nimoy died and with your help, I think I can cheer him up."

"Hmmmmm." Rex rubbed his chin, "All right, I guess it wouldn't hurt. Bino is off trying to become a wolf so not much is going on at the clubhouse. Between you and me, I don't think he'll be getting any taller if he becomes a wolf."

Joey chuckled a bit and entered Rex's home, the box full of cookie cutters still in his paws. He carried it over to the dining table and set it down when Rex turned to him, "So what kind of cookies does Dallas like?"

"I know they're out of season and all at this point but Dallas is really fond of gingerbread cookies, he always enjoys having them with milk around Christmas." Joey explained.

"Does that mean he wants gingerbread men?" Rex asked.

"No, unless the men look like Kirk, Spock and McCoy." Joey replied, "He most likely wants gingerbread cookies shaped like the cookie cutters in this box I brought along with me. You see, he's a pretty big fan of Star Trek."

"I'll go check the pantry and see if we still have some leftover gingerbread from Christmas." Rex replied as he walked over to the wooden cupboard and examined it. Opening the door, he searched around for ginger in the cabinet but came up empty, "Sorry, looks like we're fresh out."

Joey rubbed his chin in thought, "You know, I just had a really funny idea. Got any leftover gingerbread men?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." Rex replied, pulling a bag out of the pantry, "These ones were store bought. Bino gave them to me because Tiger gave them to him as a Christmas gift and he told me that he doesn't accept gifts from dogs with stupid names. I'm actually a bit surprised that Tiger didn't eat the whole thing and give Bino the empty bag as a present."

"Are the cookies still any good?" Joey asked.

Rex took a bite out of one, "Actually, they're still good despite having them for a couple of months."

"Perfect! Got any red and black frosting?" Joey asked, "I don't think I'm gonna need these cookie cutters after all."

"What for?"

"We're gonna be making red shirt gingerbread men." Joey replied, "Dallas is going to have so much fun with this!"

"Red shirt?" Rex blinked in confusion, "I don't really get what you're saying."

"It's a Star Trek thing." Joey replied, "Basically, most characters who wear red uniforms in Star Trek wind up getting killed off, just like how these gingerbread men are going to wind up getting eaten."

"Oh, I see." Rex nodded, "That actually sounds like a pretty clever joke. Laughter is the best medicine, you know. Yeah, I've got red and black frosting."

"I'll also need to borrow your computer for internet access and printing." Joey added, "I'll need it for some finishing touches with my project. Is your mom using it at the moment?"

"She's out shopping at the grocery store." Rex explained, showing Joey to the bedroom, "So you're free to use the computer. As long as you don't download any viruses on it."

"All right, then. It looks like Operation: Make Dallas Smile is ready to go!" Joey grinned, cracking his knuckles as he seated down at the computer. Logging on with a guest password, Joey began browsing the internet for pictures of the unlucky red-shirted victims of Star Trek. As he browsed the internet, he right clicked and saved a plethora of images of redshirts. Joey then turned to Rex, "By the way, is your printer in working order? I'll need it if I'm to complete this project."

"It works just fine." Rex smiled, "But it only prints in black and white. Mom was going to get color ink cartridges while she's out shopping."

"I'm sure Dallas would recognize the redshirts even if their headshots are in greyscale." Joey shrugged, "He's pretty smart and has a near encyclopedic knowledge of Star Trek so I'm sure he knows who is a redshirt and who isn't." Joey then right-clicked all the pictures of the victims and pressed the "Print" button. With that, the printer fired up and one by one, the redshirts were coming out of the machine. There were about 20 pictures total and Joey took the stack of paper into his paws, "All right, now onto phase two. Got any scissors? I'll need to cut out their faces to stick onto the gingerbread men."

Rex pointed to a pair of orange scissors that were on a black cup on the table, "You can use those."

"Excellent!" Joey clapped his paws before taking hold of the scissors and getting to work on the paper.

"What do you want me to do?" Rex asked, calmly watching as Joey cut away at the paper.

"Get to work on decorating the cookies with the red and black icing." Joey replied, "Normally, I'm pretty good at using art supplies but cookie and cake decorating really isn't a strong medium of mine. That's where you come in. Remember, the more the gingerbread men look like their wearing Star Trek uniforms, the better." The smaller dog handed the larger one a reference picture of a uniform.

Rex smiled and did as Joey said, heading back out into the kitchen and getting the cookies and icing ready. For the next hour, Joey and Rex worked on the project until both of them finished their portion of the work. Joey exited the bedroom with a bunch of cutout redshirt heads in his paws and headed out into the kitchen where Rex was putting the finishing touches on decorating the gingerbread men. Joey looked over Rex's work and smiled, "For someone who doesn't watch Star Trek, I'd say you did a pretty great job at applying the uniforms to the cookies. I cut out the heads and tossed away all the excess paper scraps. Now, we just need to glue the heads over the gingerbread men's faces. Got any peanut butter?"

"Of course I do." Rex replied, "Chunky or creamy?"

"Creamy works better for a paste." Joey replied, opening the jar of creamy peanut butter. Using a butter knife, the nerdy little dog scooped up some peanut butter and began spreading it on the faces of the gingerbread men before pasting the cut out heads over the gingerbread men's faces, "Perfect! This project is coming out just as planned!"

"But what if Dallas eats the printer paper?" Rex asked, scratching his head in confusion.

"Dallas is one of the most intelligent guys I know." Joey said, crossing his arms, "I'm sure he knows better than to eat paper."

"Would you like to put the cookies in a ziplock bag?" Rex offered, pulling out a large plastic bag and handing it to Joey.

"Of course!" Joey replied, taking the bag into his paws, "Thank you very much, Rex. I'll make sure to spread word of your kindness along the neighborhood!" And with that, Joey left Rex's house and headed off in the direction of Dallas' house.

Meanwhile, Squeak and Lester were having a little "talk" with each other over at Lester's house, "Lester, what you just said to Dallas was totally uncalled for. You need to say sorry to him."

"So?" Lester grumbled, crossing his arms, "He was crying over the death of a celebrity. Unless he was related to Leonard Nimoy or a super close friend of his, he has no right to cry over his death. All he did was make a sissy of himself by shedding that one widdle puppy dog tear."

"Don't make me bite you." Squeak warned venomously, tugging at the dachshund's ear.

"Bite me? Ha! You're bluffing!"

Without another word, Squeak sunk her teeth into Lester's ear and the dog jumped nearly five feet into the air, "Okay! Okay! If it gets you off my case, I'll say sorry to that little crypuppy. There, are you happy?!"

Meanwhile, Joey happily strolled down the street with the bag of cookies in his paw. He passed by the houses and headed a few blocks down from Rex's house. He then got to the crosswalk and saw Dallas' house on the other side. As he walked across the street, he could sense someone was following him. As he got near the front of Dallas' house, he looked back to see Truck smiling at him, "Hi, how's it going?"

Joey jumped back in a defensive stance, "I'm warning you, I'm a greenbelt karate student so don't make any quick moves!"

Truck just smiled and laughed a bit, "I'm not here to fight you, I just smelled some cookies on you and I was wondering if I could have one."

Joey blinked in confusion at the chubby little raccoon before him, "If you're supposed to be a feral then why are you begging for food instead of scavenging?"

"Food has been a little hard to come by at the moment and I am feeling pretty hungry. Fals doesn't like it when I beg humans or pets for food so can you keep this meeting a secret between the two of us?" Truck asked, making big soft eyes at Joey.

"Um...all right, I guess. You can have just one." Joey sighed, handing Truck a gingerbread version of Lieutenant Leslie. The chubby little raccoon happily devoured the cookie, paper and all.

"Thank you so much!" Truck squeaked with joy, giving Joey a hug before heading off, "See you later!"

With a shrug, Joey walked up to Dallas' door and rang the doorbell. Dallas sat on the couch inside the living room, watching an "In Memory Of Leonard Nimoy" Star Trek marathon on his TV with a plush tribble in his paws and a box of tish-yous by his side. Hearing the doorbell, he sadly got up and walked over to his front door and opened it. Joey smiled at the depressed-looking dalmatian and handed him the bag of cookies, "Rex and I made some cookies for you, Dallas."

Dallas took the bag into his paws and opened it. Immediately, a smile began forming on his face at the charming sight before him. The sight of the gingerbread men decorated to look like redshirts with pasted photos of actual redshirts over the faces. The dalmatian trekkie's eyes slowly filled up with tears as he let out a chuckle, "I...I can't believe it. You...you really went all-out on this project, didn't you? There's Kaplan, Marple, Hendroff, Mallory, Ensign O'Hierly and so much more!" Wagging his tail, Dallas threw his arms around Joey and gave him a big hug, "Thank you so much, Joey! You've really made my day!"

"So how about snack time, huh?" Joey chuckled, hugging his adorably nerdy friend back.

"Great idea, Joey!" Dallas laughed, his usual cheeriness now restored, "Don't worry about me missing my marathon. I've seen every episode at least 100 times so I'll be fine with taking a break from it."

The two nerdy dogs walked over to the dining room and Joey sat down at the table. Dallas smiled and opened the fridge, bringing out a gallon of milk and pouring a glass of milk, "All right, it's time that we milkboard these redshirts!"

"Dallas!" Joey gasped in horror, "I had no idea you could be so ruthless!"

"Well, they ARE redshirts so they've pretty much signed their own death warrants." Dallas replied, putting the cap back on the milk and putting it away in the fridge.

The dalmatian seated down at the table with his glass of milk before reaching into his bag and pulling out Ensign Rizzo. Slowly, Dallas dunked the redshirt in the glass of milk and munched into Rizzo, bifurcating him with his jaws. Joey watched in awkward silence at just how much Dallas enjoyed disposing of the redshirt. The goggles wearing pup just forced a laugh, "You know...it would be easier to eat these guys by pretending they're all Wesley."

"Too bad he isn't among these." Dallas chuckled as he tore the paper off Rizzo's face and decapitated him with a single chomp, "It would've been so much fun to eat a gingerbread version of him!"

Joey smiled and nodded as he dunked Lieutenant Peter Durst into the glass of milk and proceeded to bite his arm off, "Yeah, something about Wesley's attitude really got on my nerves."

"We're gonna be in SO much trouble with Starfleet when they find out just how many redshirts we devoured." Dallas laughed sarcastically as he ate the rest of Rizzo.

"Yeah." Joey agreed, taking another bite of Durst, "They're gonna lock us up for sure."

"Unless they set their phasers to disintegrate mode and ask questions later." Dallas replied as he dunked another gingerbread victim.

Just then, there was a knock at the door and Joey stood up, "I'll get it."

Joey walked over to the door and was greeted to the sight of Lester standing there with Squeak riding atop his head. Lester folded his arms and grumbled a bit, "Squeak literally chewed my ear to come over here and apologize to the little cry-puppy."

"You know, Lester, maybe you shouldn't have teased Dallas about crying in the first place." Squeak replied, "You know just how much of a Nimoy fanboy he is and how heartbroken he is over this. Besides, I saw tears running down your face when all four of us watched Grave Of The Fireflies so I've seen you cry too."

"That was because it was the ENGLISH dub." Lester growled, "It was SO bad that I actually started crying."

"You say that about ALL English dubs, Lester." Squeak argued back, "Even the good ones! And besides, Grave Of The Fireflies is like the All Dogs Go To Heaven for nerds, dub or not. Every otaku who watches it cries."

"There's no such thing as a good English dub!" Lester snapped back, "As far as I'm concerned, Japanese anime should only be delivered by Japanese tongue with correct English subtitles. And if the subtitles director can't get the translation right then he deserves to be tossed out in the street and penniless. American voices do not belong in Japanese anime."

"What about Canadian ones?" Squeak asked with a smirk.

"THOSE TOO!"

"ENOUGH!" Joey abruptly lashed out, "Look, I just managed to cheer up Dallas with some cookies. I'm sure the last thing he wants to hear are the two of you bickering about anime. So are you gonna come in and join us for cookies and milk or not?"

Both Lester and Squeak hung their heads in guilt and sighed in unison, "Fine."

The dachshund and mouse entered the house without any arguments with Joey and headed to the dining room where Dallas was happily nibbling away at Kaplan. The dalmatian smiled at the sight of his friends, "Hey, guys. Looks like the gang's back together. Wanna eat some redshirts with me?"

"Redshirt gingerbread men?" Squeak laughed out loud, "Now THIS I gotta see!"

"Eww, I hate gingerbread." Lester cringed, sticking his tongue out, "Besides, its two months out of season so it should be stale by now."

"Fine then." Joey smirked at Lester, "More for the rest of us, then. By the way, don't you have something to say to Dallas?"

Groaning, Lester hung his head in irritation, "Oh, fine. Hey, Dallas. I'm sorry for calling you a crypuppy, it's just that-" Instantly, Joey slugged Lester in the arm, "Ow!"

"Apology accepted." Dallas smiled as he dunked the rest of Kaplan, "Besides, there's no way I can be in a bad mood when I'm having a snack like this."

Tearing the paper off, Dallas popped the rest of Kaplan into his mouth and chewed his mushy, milk-soiled remains. Squeak smiled as she got to work on eating Mallory. Lester folded his arms and glared at Joey, Dallas and Squeak as they happily dined on the gingerbread men, "You guys are weird. I'm outta here."

"Pot calling the kettle black." Dallas giggled adorably, earning a high five from Joey as the dachshund turned and exited the door.

That night, Dallas sat alone at his laptop, typing up his daily diary:

 _Captain's Log_

 _Stardate February 28th 2015_

 _Today started off as a day of tears but soon became a day of laughter with the help of some friends. Who knew waterboarding redshirts in milk could be so much fun? Joey sure knows how to cheer a guy up. I'm so glad to have a friend like him. Lester, on the other paw is kind of a jerk but I've known him so long that I'll forgive him. I have no idea I could smile so much during a day of mourning and sorrow, just goes to show you how strong the power of friendship really is. Rest in peace, Leonard Nimoy. May the stars guide you to a better place._

 _Live long and prosper,_

 _-Dallas_

A joyful tear trickled down Dallas' muzzle and rolled off the end of his snout, landing directly on the spacebar of his laptop. With a smile and a click of a button, the trekkie saved his journal, closed his laptop and hugging his plush tribble, turned out the light in his room and went to bed.

Meanwhile, Rex was looking through the box of Star Trek cookie cutters in his kitchen that Joey accidentally left there when he pulled out one shaped like Spock's head. Instantly, he noticed the pointy ears, "Awww, what a cute little elf! I think I'll use him for next year's Christmas party!"

The end.

 **NOTE:** _This was a rather difficult oneshot to write. I wanted to do a oneshot about Dallas (because he's SO cute and no one's ever done a story on him yet) but know nothing about Star Trek so I had to do a little research on the redshirts. Also, I hit writer's block in a few spots so it may seem a little bit rushed in places. Please review if you enjoyed reading this fic._


End file.
